America’s Olympic Sports Organizations are Losing Money?

In spades, according to the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee:

…America’s amateur sports organizations stand to lose as much as $800 million from coronavirus-driven cancellations, including the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Games until next year.

Color me unsympathetic. At least not until after the various civil and criminal cases over the women and girl athlete sexual and child abuses so rampant in our sports scamps—especially our Olympic and Olympic-prep camps—have finished their trek through our courts, and convicted miscreants are paying their compensatory damages and/or are serving their times in jail.

The USOCP appears to not be taking those miscreancies seriously, even today:

USA Gymnastics [a major abuser of girl and women athletes] is facing decertification from the USOPC….

Still. Four years later. The excuse being blatted about is that USA Gymnastics is in bankruptcy proceedings as it faces hundreds of lawsuits over Nassar. Nonsense. Decertification need have no impact on USAG’s bankruptcy. USOCP looks like it’s dithering.

Not a penny for these organizations, of which USAG and USOCP are only a couple of the larger ones. American taxpayer money needs to be focused on medical support and economic recovery.

Of course the matter remains before the Progressive-Democratic Party majority House: they still could get all that cash.

Supply Chain Disruption at the Source

Retailers are beginning to suspend, or cancel outright, orders from their Asian factories and other suppliers.  So far, it’s intended to be temporary; for example:

Ulrika Isaksson, an H&M spokeswoman, said “our long-term commitment to suppliers will remain intact, but in this extreme situation we need to respond fast.”

The suspensions and cancelations might—might—seem warranted regarding Asian suppliers, but the temporary nature of them, to the extent they’re warranted at all, should be limited to South and East Asia—in the main, Vietnam, Republic of Korea, and Japan.

The cancelations need to be made permanent regarding the People’s Republic of China, given that government’s dishonesty and its companies’ well-known poor quality control—the latest example of which is directly related to the PRC’s role in the Wuhan Virus’ global spread and that nation’s pretended claim to be aiding in the world’s recovery:

…Beijing sent 150,000 coronavirus rapid testing kits to [the Czech Republic] which return false results up to 80% of the time.

PRC producers just can’t be trusted; retailers, and all other producers, need to adjust their supply chains to originate somewhere else than in the People’s Republic of China. Permanently.

Progressive-Democrats and Crises

We’re seeing their execution of Rahm Emanuel’s theory in spades these days.  The Republican-majority Senate has a proposal in the Senate, agreed in bipartisan fashion with Progressive-Democrat Senators that would aid average Americans and the small, medium, and large businesses—including our farmers and ranchers—weather the government-mandated shutdown of our economy in response to the present Wuhan Virus situation.

The bill would provide loans to businesses to help tide them over the current loss of revenue—many of the loans converted to grants if the businesses retain their employees on the payrolls.

The bill would provide payments of some few thousands of dollars directly to Americans now on lockdowns of varying degrees but that prevent the majority of them from going to work at all, so those individual Americans and their families can stay reasonably current on their ongoing bills.

The bill would facilitate production of badly needed medical supplies, both for the protection of medical personnel and first responders and for the support of hospitalized patients in the care of those medical personnel.

Like I said, these were bipartisanly agreed provisions.  Now those Progressive-Democrats in the Senate have welched on their agreements to these provisions. Now they’re actively—and as a Party—blocking cloture votes so the bill can’t even go to the floor for debate and an up-or-down vote.

Those Progressive-Democrats, having gotten their marching orders from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, CA)—imagine that: even Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D, NY) has surrendered his Senate authority to Pelosi—who has decided she needs

  • to expand and make permanent unemployment provisions (which would trap the unemployed in the Progressive-Democrats’ welfare cage)
  • anti-carbon provisions added in
  • collective bargaining measures be added in
  • fuel emissions to be imposed on airlines
  • expansion of subsidies for wind and solar energy

None of these have anything to do with the COVID-19 situation and the associated government-mandated economy shutdown.

Progressive-Democrats’ behavior here is just naked blackmail and the holding of American citizens and our economy hostage for the Progressive-Democrats’ personal and ideological profit.

Remember this all up and down the ballot in November.

Scapegoating

…and fake apologies.

Recall that Doctor Li Wenliang, a resident of Wuhan, Hubei Province, People’s Republic of China and an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital, gave early warnings about the dangers and contagious nature of the Wuhan virus. Recall further that subsequent to his warnings, the police were sicced on him and that they threatened him if he didn’t shut the hell up. Li subsequently died of that same Wuhan virus.

Now the Communist Party of China is pretending to apologize to his family for that behavior.

The party’s top disciplinary body said the police force in Wuhan had revoked its admonishment of Dr Li Wenliang that had included a threat of arrest.
It also said a “solemn apology” had been issued to Li’s family and that two police officers, identified only by their surnames, had been issued “disciplinary punishments” for the original handling of the matter.

Punishing two cops who were caught up in the early stages of the CPC’s attacks: nothing like a couple of scapegoats to put an end to the escapade.

Sure.

A Cynical Attitude About Health and Health Coverage

California demurs from the Trump administration’s position that the State’s mandate to insurers that they must cover abortion violates Federal law.  The administration has said it will withhold Federal funding from the State if it doesn’t correct its insurer demand.

The objection to the Trump administration position offered by California’s Attorney General Xavier Becerra, though, is especially disingenuous.

The Trump Administration’s threats not only put women’s health on the line, but illegally threaten crucial public health funding that Californians rely on.

For one thing, if the good citizens of California rely on crucial public health funding, then California should provide it. The citizens of the other States of our nation should not be held accountable for the California government’s spending and revenue decisions.

The larger thing, though is Becerra’s women’s health grandstand. Abortion has much, much more to do with the baby’s health than it has with the mother’s health. While pregnancy can threaten a woman’s health, these are extremely rare cases, and they should be handled on the rare case by case basis in which they exist. Funding for and insurance coverage of these few exceptions can be handled in other guises than funding abortions with Federal dollars.